Kabardino-Balkaria: defendants in the case of attack on Nalchik complain of tortures

The Kabardino-Balkarian Human Rights Centre has received five applications from the relatives of the persons accused of attacking the power agencies of Kabardino-Balkaria on October 13, 2005, asking to help in defending their rights.

The applications are accompanied by the detainees' letters, in which they write about tortures and beatings, which have been applied to them right after detention two years ago. The prisoners insist that all their evidences were taken from them under pressure, tortures, threats of rape and slow torturous murder.

We remind you that in connection with the events of October 13, 2005, in Nalchik charges were presented to 59 persons. The trial, where the case files make 1300 volumes, was started on October 11.

On November 25, another session of preliminary hearing will take place. Soon after the arrests made in October 2005, mass media published photos of the detainees with traces of tortures, some of them were placed in the Internet.

Earlier, only one of the detainees on the events of October 13, 2005, spoke about tortures and beatings applied to him. It was Rasul Kudaev, a resident of Khasanya village of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) and a former prisoner of the American Guantanamo prison. In his interviews before the arrest he also spoke about cruel treatment of Guantanamo prisoners.

The investigator, who earlier was in charge of the inquiry into the 2009 murder of the lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, has been appointed to head the group of investigators to run the inquiry into the murder of politician Boris Nemtsov.

Participants of a picket held in Astrakhan as a part of the all-Russian campaign "Vesna" (Spring), have paid tribute to Boris Nemtsov. They have also expressed their hope that his death will cause the oppositionists to stick together, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

During the week from February 23 to March 1, 2015, at least 23 people fell victim to armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. Of them, 17 people were killed and six others wounded. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

Relatives of Djabu Magomedov, a resident of the Kizilyurt District, cannot get official information about his whereabouts since February 26. According to a source in the Kizilyurt GOVD (City Interior Department), Djabu Magomedov is suspected of aiding and abetting members of illegal armed formations (IAFs), and he is in Makhachkala.

Today, in Moscow, the mourning procession in memory of murdered politician Boris Nemtsov has gathered 50,000-70,000 people, organizers of the action report. One of the key attributes in the hands of participants of the action was represented by the Russian flag. In this particular case, it symbolized the people of Russia and not the President, said Svetlana Gannushkina, the head of the Committee "Civil Assistance".

On March 1, members of the opposition movements in Rostov-on-Don held a rally in the Sedov city square to pay tribute to the memory of politician Boris Nemtsov murdered a day before. Following the event, the resolution was adopted with the demand for an independent investigation into the murder and the immediate cessation of the war in Ukraine.